॥
In plain words
That influence entered you, and an evil thought like this arose. The moment you left that place, good feeling came back.’ In the same way, in certain places and at certain times we have to be careful. We must keep far from bad company. We must keep away from places where evil-minded people move about. For good or bad alike, there is a kind of vibration.
In good company, freedom from attachment; in freedom from attachment, freedom from delusion; in freedom from delusion, the unwavering principle; in the unwavering principle, liberation while living.
We must make friends with good people. We must form ties with good people. We must end our life among good people alone. When we shape our conduct in the proper way, God's grace comes to us directly and stays with us. We wonder where He is. Even one who has never once called out ‘O God!’ remembers God without knowing it. You all know this. There was Nehru, the Prime Minister of our country Bhārata. He had no liking for spirituality. God made no sense to him. The atmosphere he grew up in was like that. Once he went to Madurai. The MPs and MLAs there all together took him to the Mīnākṣī temple. However great a man may be, he cannot help listening to what they say. He needs their strength. Though unwilling, at their urging he entered the temple. The weakness of the people of Bhārata today is that they merely go on describing the temple. They told him the emerald pendant on her breast was worth crores of rupees. They said the earrings were very valuable. ‘Why have they taken these valuable stones and adorned a valueless stone?’ he asked. He was coming away from there. He did not watch the doorway. His foot struck the threshold. He nearly fell. ‘oh! my God,’ he said. Which God? He said “my God”. That is just where we must enquire with care. Everyone has a God. People keep saying “my God”. Without any effort, this divinity rises up in us. What is the reason? What is in every human being is God alone. That divinity comes out without our even knowing it.
There was once a great paṇḍit. This paṇḍit would describe the Vedas, the Upaniṣads and the Purāṇas grandly and well, comment on them, and explain them so that all could understand. His son would come along with him. Every day people would invite them for a meal. The paṇḍit would eat. People were afraid to ask him what caste he was. One paṇḍit said to his wife, ‘We must invite him to our house for a meal.’ We have a daughter. If we give her in marriage to the paṇḍit's son, how fortunate we would be! ‘We must make this match,’ they thought. But they kept wondering whether the gotra would agree or not. The wife said, ‘You wait; I will find out.’ She made fine sweet flatbreads. She poured plenty of good ghee over them and, just as the paṇḍit arrived, served them on a leaf. When he ate the flatbreads with the ghee, a little drowsiness came over him with tamoguṇa. ‘Sir! Please rest,’ they said, and spread a mattress and asked him to lie down. He was sleeping soundly, snoring away. This lady of the house heated a ladle. She pressed it on the sole of his foot. As she burnt him, the feeling within came out of him naturally. ‘Allah!’ he cried. Everyone concluded he was a Muslim. Do you see! What comes from what is made up is one thing; what comes from what is natural is the truth. What would come out of us naturally is divinity alone. Everything else is made up. Today, inside what is made up, we are tainting our whole life. We must rely on Svabhāva. That is divinity. Sva … bhāva. For that feeling of the Ātma to come, spirituality is essential. What is spirituality? It is not japa, bhajan and all these. Spirituality means giving up these animal traits left over in man and developing divine traits. Those who have entered the spiritual path must put the animal nature far from them. They must make divinity grow. That is true spirituality. Though we do sādhanas every day, the animal traits in us do not leave. How can that be spirituality? Because we keep to things like reviling others, blaming others and making others a laughing-stock, these remain as animal traits. Divinity is in everyone. We must respect everyone. We must love everyone. We must carry out our duty. This is the chief Dharma of man.
Lakṣmaṇa was the very one who achieved Śaraṇāgati. ‘O Rāma! You are my all. I have surrendered to You. I am a tool in Your hand. I am ready for Your command’: so he made Śaraṇāgati. After they had gone to the forest, Rāma, tired, told Lakṣmaṇa to build a leaf hut. ‘Where?’ he asked. ‘Build it wherever you please,’ he said. Lakṣmaṇa was crushed. ‘Did I have to hear so harsh a word? This is my misfortune. It is the fruit of karma,’ he grieved, and sat there. Rāma went up to him: ‘Why do you have such a misgiving? I have said nothing I should not have said!’ When Rāma asked this, Lakṣmaṇa told him. ‘I surrendered to You long ago. You told me to build a leaf hut wherever I pleased. Could anything be harsher than that!